Elevator Traps 2 2 Stuck In Elevator In Gross Towers

July 20, 1986|The Morning Call

Two building visitors were trapped for about a half hour when an elevator at the Allentown Housing Authority's (AHA) Gross Towers East got stuck just above the third floor yesterday as the city ambulance crew was preparing to transport an elderly resident to the hospital.

Deputy Fire Chief Herbert Ring described the rescue as potentially "very dangerous," explaining that the elevator did not have the mechanism necessary to open the outside door and a maintenance man had to walk through the elevator shaft to make the rescue.

Ring and Patrolman Glenn Granitz also said residents of the 12-story building at 13th and Allen streets complained that the elevator often gets stuck and is affected by the humidity.

AHA Executive Director PaulZimmerman said yesterday he was not aware of any problems regarding the elevator and had not been informed of the incident. "I'll look into it on Monday and see what I can find out," he said.

Granitz said the elevator, the building's freight elevator, was to be used to transport an elderly woman who may have suffered a stroke, when it became stuck about six inches above the third floor about 12:30 p.m.

He said the ambulance crew had put the elevator on emergency hold while preparing the patient, but somebody apparently began using it.

As the crew was ready to load the litter onto the elevator, it instead found the door closed and heard the emergency bell indicating it was stuck.

Granitz said there was no delay in getting the patient to the hospital. He said the litter was folded so the patient was in an upright position and loaded instead into the smaller, regular elevator.

Meanwhile, emergency maintenance men were called in to rescue the trapped visitors.

Ring said the rescue became somewhat complicated because there was no way to open the third-floor elevator door without forcing it open. He said most elevators have holes in the doors at each level, into which an emergency key fits. At Gross Towers East, however, he said, the first- and second-floor doors are the only ones that have holes.

Instead of forcing the door open, he said, a maintenance man rode the second elevator to the third floor, stepped out a small side door and across the elevator shaft to the disabled elevator and moved the disabled elevator down to the third floor.

Ring said it was a dangerous rescue because the disabled elevator could have begun moving at any time.